Since 1991, the number of privately owned firearms in the U.S. has increased by about 50 million, the number of right-to-carry states has increased from 15 to 37, and violent crime has decreased every year.

States that adopted nondiscretionary concealed-handgun laws saw murders decreased by at least 8%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robberies by 3%. The murder rates of women permit-holders fell by as much as five times the drop of their male counterparts.

Each year in the United States guns are used three to five times as often for defensive purposes as for criminal purposes.

The first gold medal awarded at the Summer Olympics goes to the winner of a shooting competition.

Hunters write the big check for wildlife conservation in America, having contributed more than two billion dollars in tax dollars to the Pittman-Robertson Fund since 1937.

According to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers."

Forty-four states have guarantees of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in their constitutions.

Three out of four violent crimes committed in the United States each year do not in any way involve firearms.

The crime rate in London is now higher than the crime rate in New York. Crimes with firearms have risen dramatically since the ban on handgun ownership was passed by Parliament.

Every one of the 50 states has passed hunter protection legislation that protects sportsmen from the interference of "animal rights" extremists.

The congressionally-mandated study of the federal "assault weapon" law found that: "At best, the assault weapons ban can have only a limited effect on total gun murders, because the banned weapons were never involved in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders."

Despite their modern, military appearance, firearms that have been labeled as "assault weapons" operate like other semi-automatic firearms, use the same ammunition as other firearms, and possess no feature or characteristic not available on other firearms.

Crime rates and crime trends in states where "waiting periods" have been imposed have been worse than in other states.

People who carry firearms as provided for by state right-to-carry laws are statistically more law-abiding than the public as a whole.

Right-to-carry states have lower violent crime rates, on averageó24% lower total violent crime, 22% lower homicide, 37% lower robbery, and 20% lower aggravated assaultócompared to other states and D.C.

Two of every three defensive uses of firearms are carried out with handguns. Private citizens benefit from handguns for the same reason that the police do: handguns are easy to carry and they are effective defensive tools.

People who use firearms for protection are statistically less likely to be injured in a criminal attack than people who use other means of protection or no protection at all.

Virtually all scholars who have studied the issue have concluded that the Framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights considered the right to arms to be an individual right.

The U.S. Supreme Court said in Cruikshank v. U.S. that the Second Amendment protects a right which existed even before the Constitution was written. The right to arms "is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed."

In Haynes v U.S. (1968), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that felons do not have to register illegally possessed guns, because the Fifth Amendment protects them against self-incrimination.

Without gun registration and gun owner licensing, the nation's violent crime rate has decreased every year since 1991 and is now at a 27-year low. Also, deaths due to firearm accidents have been decreasing substantially without gun registration and gun owner licensing, while those due to motor vehicle accidents have not decreased, despite vehicle registration and driver licensing.

The FBI, criminologists, and sociologists credit many factors for the decrease in crime, including improvements in the criminal justice system, law enforcement policies, and the economy, a reduction in the "crack" cocaine trade, and the aging of gang members. Only the anti-gun lobby and its supporters pretend that restrictions on firearms have had any contributory effect.

There are more than 20,000 gun laws at the federal, state, and local levels.

Firearm "traces" conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearmsódo not, as claimed by anti-gun advocates, "prove" the need for more gun control laws? The Congressional Research Service has reported that the tracing system has many inherent limitations and flaws and should not be used to make determinations about the kinds of guns used in crimes.

The U.S. Supreme Court said in Cruikshank v. U.S. that the Second Amendment protects a right which existed even before the Constitution was written. The right to arms "is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed."